While we’ve been paying attention to the unfolding horror of the latest war in Iraq, a homegrown tragedy has been taking place in Ferguson, Missouri, a racially mixed suburb of 21,000 that is directly north of St. Louis.

On Saturday, an unarmed black man, 18-year-old Michael Brown, was shot multiple times and killed by police, who so far have declined to explain exactly why they fired on Brown. Witnesses say Brown had his hands up when police opened fire.

The shooting provoked mass disturbances and looting in Ferguson on Sunday and Monday, with stores ransacked and police in riot gear lobbing tear gas and shooting rubber bullets to disperse crowds. At 1 a.m. Wednesday, police shot and wounded another man who had pointed a weapon at them.

Community leaders in Ferguson are working hard to cool tempers and restore civility to a changing suburb with a small town atmosphere and a history of good race relations.

One of those leaders is the Rev. Steve Lawler, formerly of Rockford and an old friend of mine. Since 2001, he’s been rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Ferguson. We talked by phone about the unrest as well as about Ferguson’s history.

“Ferguson is the first suburb north of St. Louis. It began in the late 1800s and grew a lot after World War II with the growth of the aviation industry, particularly at McDonnell Douglas,” Lawler said.

Ferguson is about two-thirds black, but historically the town has been interracial, Lawler said.

“There’s been a really great connective tissue here. This is a multiracial community,” he said. The town doesn’t feel like a typical suburb, with no character and endless strip malls.

“Driving through it, you’d see it has its own identity, its own downtown, its own churches, a Lions Club, a farmers market and a Fourth of July parade that is bigger than the one in St. Louis.”

So, it would seem that Ferguson is the last place where such violence would take place.

“If you’d have asked me to pick the 25 (most dangerous) places in metro St. Louis, I wouldn’t have put Ferguson on the list,” Lawler told me. “I certainly haven’t heard concerns about this sort of tension; it came as a complete surprise.”

Because of that aviation boom in the 1950s, Ferguson became a town noted for small but affordable houses, something like you’d find in Rockford’s Rolling Green.

“These were great little houses, but more and more they’re not owner-occupied,” Lawler said. “Also, St. Louis has some city and county schools that lost accreditation, so students are transferring out.”

Page 2 of 2 - The combination of not enough jobs, people moving in and out, and questionable schools has created instability.

Sunday’s and Monday’s violence “is like a kick in the gut,” Lawler said. “Our community was picking up speed.”

Lawler and other leaders hope that Ferguson’s strong community spirit can help people work through the recent difficulties to restore peace — with justice for the aggrieved family. The Justice Department and the FBI are investigating even as local police refuse to identify the police officer who killed Brown, citing death threats.

Meanwhile, Lawler and other clergy members have been out and about, “having prayer meetings, responding to nuts and bolts of what happens in the community, talking to people and working with groups and seeing how we can respond to their concerns.”

“Monday night, the NAACP conducted a really good meeting. We’re working with neighborhood associations, making sure elderly people are safe in their homes.” St. Stephen’s pantry, which typically buys food from a local grocery supplier, was forced to shut down because the store where it gets its groceries was closed Monday because of the disturbances, reported KSDK-TV5 in St. Louis.

In addition to serving as rector at St. Stephen’s, Lawler, who attended Rockford Jefferson, has an organizational consulting business and teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.